


All In the Cards

by Pascalle



Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: M/M, Magic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 04:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12623380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pascalle/pseuds/Pascalle
Summary: Hyunwoo has been gone from his home for six months, but luckily he had been taken in by an odd fortune teller named Moonbok.





	All In the Cards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cursive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cursive/gifts).



> Inspired by a convo I had with a homie on twitter. bc I love HyunBok so much I knew I had to do something with it and bc I haven't written anything in like 10 years lakdjfls
> 
> Once again I'm writing as Hyunwoo bc I still continue to love Projecting My Love Of Moonbok onto his character.

Hyunwoo couldn’t help but frown when he entered the small, dingy house that had been his home for the past four months. Empty. The sight of the dark and empty room made his heart rate go up slightly as he scanned the area. There was a candle and a bowl sitting on the small coffee table in the middle of the room. When he walked over to it, he leaned over and saw the small bowl filled with water and hardened pieces of wax floating in it. He picked up the candle sitting next to it, still feeling warmth in its base, and felt temporarily calmed from the strong scent of rosemary being emitted by it.

_”Rosemary has a calming effect, Hyunwoo. It calms you down and you can focus your mind better on the dripping wax. That’s how I see what I see.”_

_“But how do you know?”_

_“You just know.”_

He glanced at the back door to the tiny home, and realized that it was slightly ajar. When he pushed it open, he felt a wave of relief wash over him as he saw a familiar figure by the makeshift chicken coop that had only popped up last week.

“Moonbok, you know I told you to leave some sort of sign that you’re still at home, right?”

“Didn’t you see the candle?” Moonbok mumbled in response, his attention still focused more on the bright white rooster pecking grain in front of him, pen and pad of paper in his hand and any expression obscured from the long strands of hair covering his face.

“I meant more of a written note type thing and not obscure wax drippings…” Hyunwoo trailed off. Instead of scolding him further, he bent down and joined Moonbok with his observations. “What are you doing, anyways?”

“Alectryomancy…I’m looking at the pattern of the pecking.” Moonbok sighed. “I’m not as good as I’d like. I’ve always been better at more indoors fortune telling.” But he brushed the hair out of his face and Hyunwoo could see a determined look on his face. “But it’s only been a week. A good fortune teller isn’t created in a week. I just have to work on it.”

Hyunwoo leaned forward and poked the rooster on its head. “We could always get chickens instead. That way you can tell fortunes and we can have eggs to eat.”

“Not the same.”

Hyunwoo chuckled at the indignant look on Moonbok’s face at the suggestion. He was quite the quirky guy, though Hyunwoo assumed that came with the territory of being a fortune teller. He had never met a fortune teller before Moonbok, things like predicting the future tended to be looked down upon so someone could never find a shop unless they were looking in shady areas. And Moonbok always seemed to have his head in the clouds, and always seemed to know more than he let on.

And the way Moonbok looked at Hyunwoo it was unlike anything Hyunwoo had ever felt. It was almost disturbing, how intently Moonbok looked at Hyunwoo, like his own eyes were looking past his skin and deeply into his soul, seeing something that not even Hyunwoo saw.

Moonbok was having one of those moments, that felt like they happened every other week or so. He’d just stare at Hyunwoo and make him squirm and feel a bit uncomfortable because he wasn’t sure Moonbok even realized what he was doing, and he wasn’t sure if it was polite to ask Moonbok what exactly was going on. He had tried once, and Moonbok only responded in confusion.

“We need to go shopping.” Moonbok said suddenly.

“Huh?”

“I ran out of charms. I meant to make more but I need to buy supplies, and I got distracted by the rooster.” Moonbok shrugged, standing up and clearly abandoning his attempt to seek the future with the rooster and let it continue pecking the ground.

Hyunwoo rolled his eyes as he followed Moonbok back into the house. “You’re too kind Moonbok. I know you want everyone to live their very best lives, but you can’t do it for everyone. Someone is going to try and take advantage of you someday.”

“What, someone like you? You’ve been living in my house rent free for months now.” Moonbok responded teasingly. “Mmm, maybe I’ll just make you my apprentice. You need something to do beside sitting around doing nothing.”

Well…Moonbok had a point. It was thanks to his kindness that Hyunwoo was now off the streets and out of trouble. It had already been six months since he and Taedong had separated and Hyunwoo had ended up here. He didn’t have a single clue where he was now, and it was even longer since he had seen Jaechan. And Minho…Just thinking the name made his stomach churn in anger and pain. It was thanks to him that they had all ended up separated and with no way to return home. Hyunwoo didn’t want to know where Minho had ended up. He could be in a ditch, for all he cared.

Hyunwoo had been lucky. He had spent two months alone on these streets, doing his best not to draw attention to himself. These were the Outskirts, so entirely different from the city that he had grown up in with his friends. It was much more dangerous, even the council couldn’t control the magic here, not the way that they did in the city. So instead of even trying to, they contained it. No one from the city would ever go (or admit to going) to the Outskirts. Everyone knew it was nothing but criminals and dark, dark magic. Hyunwoo would hide in alleyways, constantly cover his face with his hoodie as he navigated the narrow streets. He barely even trusted the food scraps that he found because he wasn’t sure what someone could have done to tamper with it.

And one day, he stumbled upon Moonbok’s tiny fortune shop. He popped out of the shadows and gave Hyunwoo the same searing look that he gave him today, before he offered Hyunwoo a palm reading. _”On the house, since you don’t seem to have any money to speak of.”_ And of course, he had been right.

The pad of his finger gently ghosted over his palm, as Moonbok read the lines of his hand. And Hyunwoo remembered Moonbok’s hand stiffening slightly, and a small intake of breath. They stayed frozen in silence and Hyunwoo feared what Moonbok would tell him. But the shorter man only set down his hand on the table, and looked up at him even more intensely. He had never felt more vulnerable in that moment, Moonbok’s gaze had never been as strong as it had been in that moment. He half expected Moonbok to leap over the table and stab him with a hidden knife or something.

_“Do you need a place to stay?”_

_“W-what?”  
“You’re obviously not from here. I don’t think you have a place to stay. Stay with me.”_

And with that final statement, Moonbok allowed him to stay at his place, and managed to casually avoid any question Hyunwoo had about the palm reading that Moonbok never completed. He refused to tell Hyunwoo’s fortune in general. No candles, no tarot cards, not any of the other weird ones that Hyunwoo would watch Moonbok do and not fully understand. He eventually gave up and dropped the subject, as disappointing as it was. Though now that Moonbok considered training him (even if it had only been mentioned jokingly, Hyunwoo knew it was serious.) he wondered if maybe he could figure out what Moonbok saw. He looked down at his own palm, wondering what was hiding right in front of his eyes.

“Come on Hyunwoo, we don’t have all day.” Moonbok snapped him out of his stupor by grabbing the hand he was looking at and dragging him out the door.

They went to a shop that Moonbok often frequented called ‘The Real’, which was owned by some mariners who weren’t so much magic users but more of treasure hunters. They were frequently able to find the outlandish (and often very illegal) things that people in this area needed. Every time they entered the shop they were hit with a very pungent smell of sea salt, fish, and dust. Hyunwoo couldn’t help but choke every time they visited, but Moonbok of course was never bothered by it. He was always much more interested in finding fascinating little trinkets and bright cloth that he’d use for his good luck charms.

More often than not he stuck close to Moonbok, not very into the idea of looking around the rather creepy shop. But something that day compelled him into wandering around the store more, finally taking in things he had often overlooked. There were trinkets that Moonbok liked, talismans, stones, gems, little pieces of jewelry. There were exotic plants, unidentifiable powders, lots of scrap metal and other things.There were also very questionable things like murky jars with things Hyunwoo was fairly certain contained body parts and innards. What caught Hyunwoo’s attention though were the shelves of dusty books, most of them in languages that Hyunwoo didn’t understand, but he’d still grab some and open them, more often than not finding rather gruesome images that he immediately wanted to bleach from his mind. But instead, he’d just put the book back and open the next one. Truly, this place was different than the city.

As he reached the end of the row he noticed a small card case tucked between two large tomes. Upon pulling them out, he realized they were tarot cards. Different from the ones Moonbok had though, these seemed decidedly more ornate, and customized with detailed images of different people. Hyunwoo squinted at the top card (The Fool) trying to figure out why it felt so familiar to him…

“Hyunwoo?” He felt someone prod his shoulder and realized Moonbok was there.

“Mmm?” Hyunwoo was still more focused on the card. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t tear his gaze away from it. Was it because he wanted to know why the face of the Fool felt so familiar or was it something deeper?

“I finished shopping, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah…”

Moonbok finally took note of what was in Hyunwoo’s hand, and he looked shocked for a moment, before gently taking the card and the rest of the deck out of his hands. “You found tarot cards!”

“They…make me feel strange.” Hyunwoo admitted. “There’s just something about them. Yours never felt like that, even though I’ve touched them often enough.”

Moonbok contemplated that for a moment, before his mouth curled up in a smile and Hyunwoo could see genuine excitement in his eyes. “Maybe you do have some ability in you, Hyunwoo.”

Hyunwoo’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Moonbok suddenly nodded so vigorously that his hair was flying everywhere. “I was the same way when I got my first cards.”

Moonbok lead them up to the counter to pay for their things, the tarot cards still in Moonbok’s hands. Hoeseung, the man who usually ran the till, was quite excited to see Moonbok. They chatted fairly often, and for quite a while whenever Moonbok visited the shop. They would even play word games (and at that point, Hyunwoo was usually close to falling asleep as he tried to patiently wait for them to finish. But he loved teasing Moonbok about acting like a gossipy mom whenever he got to talking with Hoeseung.) But today, Moonbok seemed to be avoiding any deepr conversation with Hoeseung.

“You seem like you’re in a rush.” The other man noted, as he counted up Moonbok’s change.

“Well, I now have an apprentice that needs training, and we need all the time we can get.” Moonbok joked, tapping on the tarot cards he had set down while he paid.

Hoeseung raised an eyebrow and picked up the card Hyunwoo had been examining earlier. “They’re weird cards though, aren’t they?” He flipped the face towards Hyunwoo and Moonbok. “Isn’t this one of the council members up in the city? Min-something.”

Moonbok shrugged. “Wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen their faces.”

But at that, Hyunwoo’s eyes widened in recognition. Of course, that’s why the face had seemed so familiar. Hoeseung handed the cards to Hyunwoo and immediately he looked at the next few cards behind the identified council member. Yes, of course, there they all were. All eleven of them were present, along with more faces that Hyunwoo didn’t recognize but was now sure were people that must actually exist. How odd. Who would need cards like this? He stuck the cards into his pocket, maybe he and Moonbok could analyze them more later.

“Hyunwoo, I’m tired.” Moonbok whined slightly, handing off the purchases to him and Hyunwoo wordlessly bent down and let Moonbok climb onto his back.

“You know, for a great fortune teller you’re pretty lazy.”

“I’m not lazy, I’m just selective with what I work hard on sometimes.”

“Like the rooster.”

“I swear, I’m going to conquer alectryomancy.”

Hyunwoo couldn’t help but only laugh in response, before both of them lapsed into a comfortable silence as Hyunwoo slowly made his way back to their home. The tarot cards felt heavy in his pocket, and there was still a nagging feeling in Hyunwoo’s mind about them, but it was probably because he had never been aware of any “seeing” power that he might have had. That stuff would have been suppressed in the city. He was probably just not used to it.

“Hyunwoo.”

“Yeah?”

“You know how you said that someday someone might take advantage of my kindness?”

“…Are you kicking me out?”

“No! No of course not. But I thought about it.” Moonbok tightened his grip on Hyunwoo’s shoulders.” And I figured that if someone is going to even try and take advantage of me, I know that you’ll be there to make sure that I’ll be safe.”

“You seem very sure of this.” Hyunwoo commented.

“Well, let’s just say I somehow knew we’d end up meeting.” Moonbok responded quietly. “And I’m glad. I’ve been alone for a while.”

Hyunwoo hoisted Moonbok up a bit higher to make sure he didn’t fall. “Well, I’m glad I’m able to keep you company. I’ve been alone too for a bit, if you hadn’t noticed. But…hopefully I’ll be able to actually help out more.”

“He felt Moonbok lay his head in the crook of his neck, and swore that he could even feel Moonbok smiling against him.

“Thank you, I’d really like that.”

And for a moment, the tarot cards were forgotten, and for the first time in six months Hyunwoo actually felt…content.

**Author's Note:**

> Plots and stuff are left kinda open ended in case I want to come back and write more of it, still not too sure lol


End file.
